Pakistani Military Reaching Out To India For Cooperation, Says Report

General Qamar Javed Bajwa reportedly said he wanted peace and dialogue with India

London: Pakistan’s Army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa has recognised that one of the ways of achieving peace in his country could be via military cooperation with India, a report by the UK-based think tank Royal United Services Institute has said.

General Bajwa had recently invited Sanjay Vishwasrao, the Indian military attache, and his team to the Pakistan Day military parade in Islamabad in March, Geo TV reported. General Bajwa had reportedly said that he wanted peace and dialogue with India.

Indian and Pakistani soldiers, along with the Chinese, will also participate in joint military drills in Russia in September. The military exercise will take place under the framework of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), a China-dominated security grouping which is increasingly seen as a counterweight to the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), officials said.

“These initiatives come against a background of almost weekly exchanges of fire along the Line of Control in (Jammu and) Kashmir,” said the report prepared by RUSI’s South Asia and Middle East expert, Kamal Alam.

The Royal United Services Institute or RUSI on its website says it is an independent think tank “engaged in cutting edge defence and security research”. The institution was founded in 1831 by the Duke of Wellington.